September 11, 2001, is a date that resonates deeply with anyone who was more than a young child at the time. The day is marked indelibly in the memories of Americans due to the devastating plane hijackings, the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York, and the tragic loss of nearly 3,000 lives.
Many Americans have personal memories of that fateful day, and Lara Lundstrom Clarke, a New Yorker, has a particularly unique story.
At 24 years old in September 2001, Clarke was employed as an account manager at Baseline Financial Services, which was located at the World Trade Center.
In an interview with The Morton Report, shared by The Hollywood Reporter, Clarke recounted her experience that day. As she made her way to work, she crossed 7th Avenue and was nearly struck by a silver Mercedes SUV.
She described the moment: “I stopped and they screeched to a halt. Then it developed into one of those classic who-goes-first situations. It got ridiculous. Then I made eye contact with the Mercedes driver.”
This wasn’t just any New Yorker behind the wheel; it was a famous actress known for roles in movies such as Shallow Hal and Sliding Doors, and the future founder of Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow.
Clarke recalled: “OMG it was Gwyneth Paltrow.”
While no harm came from the encounter between Clarke and Paltrow, the incident caused Clarke to miss her subway train by mere seconds. She eventually caught the next train, arriving at the World Trade Center stop at 8:47am.
The Miller Center notes that the first plane had crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower just a minute earlier.
Clarke recounted: “It was total chaos being stuck in the basement of a building. All I could think about then was my parents and if I died, what it would do to them. My heart was racing, I was paralyzed. I couldn’t even speak. ‘Get me outside, I need to be outside’.”
Shortly after, a second plane hit the other tower, devastating the 77th floor where Clarke usually worked.
Clarke acknowledged how narrowly she escaped death and credited Paltrow with saving her life.
“If I had made that train I would have been at my desk on the 77th floor of 2 World Trade Center,” she explained.
Paltrow learned about the incident’s significance when Clarke contacted her through a letter.
In 2011, Paltrow recounted her perspective to Reuters, stating: “I was on the way home and it was the morning of September 11 – not that I knew at the time what that meant – and a girl was jaywalking across the street and we kind of both stopped at the same time and waited a really long time.
“Ten years later I got a letter from her saying that she had been late for work… It was an extraordinary story and all I could think about is all of the people who had experiences like that that day, but aren’t able to reach out because it wasn’t a recognizable person.”